WWW.WURA.ORG.UK

2016 WURA SUMMER NEWSLETTER WELCOMES AND UPLANDS ROAD ASSOCIATION

Message from the Chairman

Now that the dust has settled on the aborted attempt at resur-facing Welcomes Road and WURA’s finances are in a healthy state after a successful settlement with the contractors, we can begin a programme of phased improvements to both roads beginning with the junction of Welcomes and Uplands Roads, an area that suffers constant wear and tear from turning vehicles. Towards the end of September a T shaped section into Welcomes Road will be planed off and 2 layers of hard wearing macadam put down. The resurfac-ing of Uplands Road from the strengthened junction with Wel-comes Road up to Morven House will improve traction. The work will necessitate the closure of the roads at this junction for a short period. Ample warning will be given together with the appropriate signage. To this end it would be useful if those residents who have not yet informed the Secretary of their email addresses to do so.

After the work on the junction has been completed all the trian-gles on the 22 road humps will be repainted along with new white lines at all the junctions. This should lift the appearance of the roads.

The Committee were hoping that the Metis flood survey carried out on behalf of the Council might result in some form of drainage installation to benefit Welcomes Road which is a funnel for surface water coming off the City of London land above us and a major contributor to flooding problems in Valley Road and the River Bourne. The photos below taken by a resident show the effect on Welcomes Rd from the failure to address the problem. Whilst we are doing something to stop surface water spreading across the width of the road in normal conditions nothing we do can alleviate the effect of storm water without help from the Council and City of London.

The subject of flooding and road levies is dealt with further on in the Newsletter but as far as the road levy is concerned I was very pleased with the response from the vast majority of residents in spur roads to our plea for increased contributions. Unfortunately there are a few residents who are not paying the levy. At past AGMs residents have made it clear that the failure to pay cannot be tolerated and want us to take legal action against defaulters. Please note that in terms of the note under road levy rates on page 3 that the Committee reserve the right to recover the extra ad-ministration costs involved in chasing late payers.

I should like to welcome Ian Dixon to the Committee who repre-sents the interests of residents living at the Valley Road end of Welcomes Rd.

Hopefully we will get a summer albeit rather late but do enjoy it when it arrives!!

Investments - income and growth

Pensions - personal and company

Life Assurance - family protection

Planning and building sites: Sub division of 22 Kenley Lane. The developer who acquired this plot earlier this year has commenced work on it and paid 50% of the developer road levy in terms of the agreement entered into with them. Site traffic will enter from the Valley road end only. Report non compliant traffic to the Secretary or Chairman. The Directors of Baker Roofing have been very helpful.

No 6 Welcomes Road The houses are progressing well and the De-velopers have agreed to pay the Developer Road levy on completion. After initial problems with road blocking the builders have been very helpful and cooperative.

No 40 Welcomes Road Buxton Building Construction in Caterham have bought this plot and will consult us re plans before submitting them. They appreciate the need to pay a road levy to cover the building phase. We are impressed by their refreshing approach

No 57 Welcomes Road The application for 7 flats which drew over 100 objections has been referred to the Bristol Inspectorate on appeal. The lack of prior consultation for this development shows very little sensitivity and a cavalier attitude to people already living here.

No 10 Uplands Road/Cumnor Rise. This back garden development comprises 3 detached houses. The developer is Brookworth Homes in Reigate. We are in touch with them regarding the Developer Road Levy and executing the usual agreement. They do not seem to be ready to start work yet but activity should be reported to the Com-mittee immediately as work must not commence until the documenta-tion is in place and the 50% road levy paid.

Drainage report After all the consultations with Metis reported in the Winter Newsletter the Council Engineer responsible for environ-mental matters has indicated that nothing is likely to be spent on managing flood water from the Airfield area and City of London land. We suggested in response that forest debris dams and contouring could help slow the speed of the storm water that finds its way into Welcomes Road and which is already damaging property.

Our views have been channelled to the Council and Cllr Steve O’Con-nell. There is a Public Meeting scheduled which may explain why nothing is being done to regulate the flows from the land above us. Instead we are urged to install water butts. To paraphrase a well known tennis player ‘”They can’t be serious”. At least as far as Wel-comes Road is concerned. Its all about cost benefit calculations we assume and keeping the Valley Road gulley clear along with the Bourne River seems to be the priority and the solution from the Council’s viewpoint. If you want to know more about Government policy on flooding read the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

Recent pictures of

Welcomes Road

No 27 to 17

Storm water heading for Valley

Road

From the Treasurer’s desk

The road levy invoices for 2016/2017 will be sent out at the begin-ning of August preferably by email (if we have your email address) or hand delivered. If you pay by Standing Order please could you check that your annual contribution has been amended to reflect the increase which came into effect last year (2015/2016), the amount payable is based on your council tax band (see opposite page). If you are unsure please email or phone me to get clarifica-tion. Please also ensure that your house number and road name are included as a reference so we are able to identify your payment on the WURA bank statement.

Otherwise the Association’s reserves remain over £90,000 though this will be depleted by the cost of the work on the Uplands/Welcomes junction, new white lining and modifications to the lower part of Welcomes Road whilst road levy income of about £18,000 is expected later this year, similar in amount to the cost of the work. The collection of road levy (issuance of invoices) will be brought forward in 2017 to April/May rather than after the AGM.

From the Secretary’s desk

Internet speeds

Towards the end of last year a resident raised the question of inter-net speeds in the area and why we cannot get a provider to lay fibre optic cable along our roads. I raised this issue at a high level with BT and my attention was drawn to the following statements from the CEO in a Press release dated Sep 22nd 2015:-

Aim for universal minimum broadband speed 5-10mbps

extend fibre to 95% of premises target

10m premises to get ultra fast speeds 300-500mbps

1gbps for some services

Roll out by end 2020

If you are on fibre broadband now you should get anything from 10mbps to 40mbps depending on the quality of the copper wiring from the fibre node serving you, the wiring in your house and your distance from the serving node. In the circumstances my contact in BT did not consider that laying our own fibre cable worth it bearing in mind 5 to 10 mbps is fast enough for most homes and already some of you do much better than this. In other words let BT Open Reach get on with the job of upgrading the network.

The above is what appeared in the last Newsletter and since then I had some interesting and informative emails from certain residents. There was some scepticism about the BT roll out programme and a feeling that some of their statements about performance compared to other countries exaggerated. According to the BT web site LSPUR in Purley has now been upgraded to accept more fibre connections.

A non WURA resident living in Kenley extolled the Virgin Media ser-vice providing 100mbps (or 200 if required) but we can only get this service if VM were to lay cable in Welcomes and Uplands Roads which they will not do without sufficient numbers signing up.

One resident pointed out the need for higher speeds than 10mbps when there are multiple users in the house as well as streaming to TV the latter trend being quite marked now.

Another mentioned that after years of wrangling with BT it turned out that there was a defective connection near the house and now enjoys 50-60 mbps. If you work from home such speeds are vital as is recognized by Government. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_to_the_x for more information on fibre connections.

The lesson from this is that if for example the copper to your house has been stretched from the pressure of tree branches (which hap-pened to me) or defective in any other way you will not get the speed you could be getting. My experience was that the cable could carry voice phone signals but not the internet which seemed to come as a surprise to my provider when I spoke to them on the landline.

Uplands residents are usually connected to a cabinet near the road and tend to enjoy higher speeds than Welcomes Road residents whilst the latter are connected to LSPUR about 2 miles away near Grove Road in most cases.

Members email addresses

Number of properties for which we have email addresses 156 (124) of 221 (with 6 more planned or being built) properties in WURA dbase. We are making progress but 65 residents still need to be sent hard-copies of AGM Agendas and Minutes of which about half have specifi-cally requested them.

If you really cannot supply an email address and want hard copies of our letters and circulars please let me know by dropping off a note at 12 Zig Zag Road, 5a UR, 14, 61 or 161 Welcomes Road. Otherwise we shall assume you will keep yourselves informed by reference to our web site www. wura.org.uk. There are road closures on the horizon almost certainly in September so please watch out for information on this—see the Chairman’s comments on future road works and email addresses.

Note for Winter GRIT BINS So far this winter we have been let off lightly and the grit bins remain full (of wa-ter?) but the colder weather forecast never materialised. The main concern now is heavier rainfall and the accompa-nying flooding.

Please apply grit in sparing quantities as it is very costly. One shovel full per 3 yards of road is quite enough to do the job. Moreover excess salt is damaging to the environment as well as the bottom of your car.

Actual gritting rates are:-

Before snowfall 14 gms per m2. To clear ice 60-70 gms per m2.

I litre will clear 12-15 m2.

Uplands Road report

The road continues to serve us well only needing occasional patching. Quotes have been obtained for the work on the junction with Wel-comes Road as mentioned by the Chairman and hopefully work will start in September.

Mike Lott is your Committee Member for Uplands Road and adjoining roads and is your point of contact if you want to discuss anything. He is also your representative on the Safer Neighbourhood Policing Panel and has in the last few months extended his portfolio to drain-age issues.

There has been no real interest shown in naming the WURA area The Welcomes Estate for example and on this basis we assume the mat-ter can rest.

Some disruption can be expected when Brookworth Homes start work on 3 detached houses at the back of 10 Uplands Road when the site will need to be accessed via Cumnor Rise. The draft Developers Agreement has been sent to them and we await developments.

Speeding on Welcomes Road

We do not know who the guilty parties are but should you be able to get a registration number or photo please inform the Secretary

Leaves and littering Residents or their gardeners are asked not to blow leaves or other debris onto the road as this interferes with the flow of water down the road and blocks drains. The Committee would appreciate it as well if residents could keep the channels along their frontages clear to allow surface water to drain along the edges of the road rather than across it. There is also litter along the verges of Welcomes Road particularly at the lower end and it would be much appreciated if frontagers could remove this from time to time. A quote is being obtained to trim the verges in a few weeks time whilst letters have been written to residents in Kenley Lane who have boundaries on Welcomes Rd to trim back their hedges. Residents are responsible for maintaining their own verges and hedges.

ROAD LEVY RATES EFFECTIVE FROM AUGUST 2015

Band D £54 Band E £66

Band F £78

Band G £90 Band H £108

Road levy payment arrears: The Committee reserve the right to charge persistent defaulters an administration fee equal to 50% of the total outstanding road levy

due as well as all legal and other costs incurred by the Committee including County Court fees in the event of it becoming necessary

to pursue such defaulters through the Money Claim on Line system.

If you want to pay by standing order please use these details

Payee: Welcomes and Uplands Road Association

Sort code: 30-91-72 (Lloyds Bank)

Account No: 02400865

If you want to pay the levy via BACS (now faster payment) please use the account details shown above.

If you cannot pay by standing order, a cheque or cash is fine. Use the WURA reference on your road levy invoice when mak-ing a faster payment through the internet.

VISIT OUR WEB SITE: www.wura.org.uk

NEWS FLASHES appear on the web site from time to time so please visit it occasionally

WURA RESIDENTS DATA BASE: If you have not given it to us please email your house, phone number and email address, to weluplandsroads@aol.com.

This helps us to keep you informed of developments including road closures and security issues via our regular group emails.

OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS: If you cannot access these on the web site please leave your name and address with the Secretary at

12 Zig Zag Road Kenley CR8 5EL and he will make sure you get hard copies delivered to your house.

NEW RESIDENTS: A welcome pack will be supplied. Ask the Secretary for one if you have not received one.

CHANGES OF HOUSE OWNERSHIP AND ROAD LEVY: If you are selling or have just moved in please remember to advise the Secretary

weluplandsroads@aol.com or phone 020 8668 7293

Your committee

Colin Brown (Chairman) 020 8668 2101 colin.brown301@btinternet.com Michael Lott 020 8645 9234 treetops5a@btinternet.com

Jan Scully (Treasurer) 020 8660 1699 janice.scully@pennyweights.co.uk Robin McCallum 020 8763 2738 robin@wanaka.myzen.co.uk

Richard Russell (Secretary) 020 8668 7293 weluplandsroads@aol.com Ian Dixon 020 8660 0093 iandixon@btinternet.com

Uplands Representative Michael Lott

Other useful contacts:

Councillor Steve O’Connell Mobile 07760 310686.

Email: steve.o’connell@croydon.gov.uk

Professional and Friendly Independent Financial Advice

There are now literally thousands of pension and investment products available. We continually research the market to find the best solution for your needs.

For a free personal consultation, without obligation, please telephone:

020 8660 1533

Office: 1 Station Approach, Kenley, CR8 5JD

Email: jerry@kenleyfm.co.uk Website: www.kenleyfm.co.uk Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Some products that we recommend are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The value of investments can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the full amount invested.